1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to search engines, and more particularly, to a method and system to automatically present the user with alternative web pages of requested web pages.
2. Description of Related Art
In the course of accessing information by means of a web browser from a network, such as the Internet or a company or office intra-net, a user often finds a web page at a particular URL (Uniform Resource Locator) address that contains information the user would like to access. The web page typically contains several links to a variety of other web pages on its serving equipment or on the serving equipment that presents these other web pages.
Often, a user desires to visit certain ones of these other web pages. In so doing, the user may manually move the cursor over and click on the desired link or URL displayed on the viewed web page. After the user has manually clicked on the link to the desired web page, the web browser then tries to retrieve the desired linked web page and visually display this desired web page to the user.
In the prior art, the retrieved results of this request by the user typically include the user being presented with the desired web page, a “page not found” message from the proxy server, or a long delay or wait period that indicates the web browser is not successfully retrieving the content which resides on the web server that the link refers to and that is to produce the desired web page. Wherein the web page is presented to the user, the presented page may have been changed or updated, or the presentation of such page be slow leading to time delays, which both decrease user productivity, increase user irritation and decrease user web experience. The access of pages that result in a “page not found” message may include those web pages that have been deleted or taken offline, also wasting user time and productivity and increasing user irritation.
Processes and systems for determining the success rate at which a user will be able to link to a desired web page have been developed in the art. Such processes and systems include those that use search requests, such as, searching content on web pages, validating stored bookmarks, and usage of historical data access through a proxy server. However, once it is determined that a desired web page is slow in access, not available, has been changed or taken off line, the user must then manually search for another similar web page and attempt to link thereto, potentially resulting in another changed web page or web page not found message. The process of manually searching for alternative web pages to a desired web page is tedious, time consuming, inefficient and still being dependent on manual input of the user for process initiation. Accordingly, a need exists in the art for a process and system that dynamically provides alternative web pages to desired web pages.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a process and system that provides alternative web pages to a requested web page, of which the originally requested web page is slow, has been deleted, updated or taken offline, whereby these alternative web pages are dynamically presented to the user to allow the user to quickly and easily link thereto at least one of the alternative web pages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a process and system of visually displaying alternative web pages of a desired web page to the user to allow the user to quickly and easily link thereto at least one of the alternative web pages.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a process and system that enables the user to manually select the best performing alternative web page from a list of alternative pages.
A further object of the invention is to provide a process and system that dynamically provides the user with the best performing alternative web page from a list of alternative pages.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a process and system that provides a user with alternative web pages resulting in reduced network congestion.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a process and system that provides a user with alternative web pages that is not dependent on manual searching for alternative web pages.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.